Qui-si-sana car park

Mr Ray Bezzina states that Qui-si-sana residents have shifted their position on the proposed car park (The Sunday Times, April 2). This is not the case.

Astrid Vella was correct in stating that our chief objection to the car park has always been that it accommodates 7,000 square metres of commercial space and in reality is an excuse for the construction of a Bay Street-type leisure and entertainment complex with the potential for yet further expansion.

I have no idea what a communications co-ordinator is. However I do know that Mr Bezzina is a public servant, paid out of public funds. Should he be making personal attacks on private citizens who stand up for their rights? 

This leisure complex has been imposed on the residents of Qui-si-sana, being surreptitiously added to the brief two years after the close of public consultation.

Reliable sources inform us that the patrons and employees of the proposed establishments will occupy a bare minimum of 300 parking spaces out of the proposed 600. The car park will clearly not reduce Sliema's parking problem but will exist to serve the commercial complex. When one considers the permanently empty High Street car park, the revamped parking at the Ferries and the thousands of new parking places that are to be created in the Tigné peninsula, one fails to see the point of this car park at all.

This venture is to be subsidised to the tune of Lm250,000 out of public funds and the developer will be able to sell the lease after two years. If this is not public land for private speculation, what is it?

We do not oppose positive developments, however we object to the destruction of the garden and residential area. We reiterate Robert Arrigo's call for a halt to the project and a rethink of the development brief. We ask that a decision on the construction of a car park be postponed until the residents' parking zone is working and the new developments are open to the public.

Fresh data may be gathered and then, if necessary, a new traffic and parking scheme devised, which takes into account the well-being of the whole community, both residential and commercial.

The plans for the Qui-si-sana commercial development may be seen at www.quisisana.org.